Government bungles disabled car scheme

20/06/2011

A scheme costing £1.4bn a year to help the disabled have access to vehicles has backfired, with friends and families of the disabled taking advantage of the generous benefits package.

Under the Motability scheme, disabled drivers get £51.40 a week in order to long-term rent a car, but it turns out that that able-bodied friends and family members have muscled in on the action and are using the vehicles in as much as '50 percent of cases' according to The Sunday Times.

The scheme allows participants to add to their allowance in order to bag fancy vehicles such as a BMW 3 Series or an Audi A4.

A source from Whitehall said: 'The issue this raises is 'is Motability being abused?' And the answer is absolutely, in some cases it is.'

"Unfortunately you've got instances where people take the car and don't use it for what they're supposed to use it for, and you have a disabled person not getting to the doctor or to church.The question for us is how can we police it better?' the source added.